FEARED cuts in funding for St Giles' Hospice were today condemned as "unthinkable" as a plea was made to the NHS over a £5 million-a-year care bill.

FEARED cuts in funding for St Giles' Hospice were today condemned as "unthinkable" as a plea was made to the NHS over a £5 million-a-year care bill.

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has told an allparty Parliamentary group of the hospice's vital role in caring for cancer patients from across the Midlands.

A delegation is due to meet Government health ministers in January to plead for funding levels to be maintained.

Fears of a funding crisis have been raised just weeks after the hospice revealed a massive slump in its lifeline voluntary cash support.

Bosses said other charities, including the tsunami disaster appeal and a fund to help Africa's starving, had attracted cash that they would normally have expected to receive.

St Giles' gets 35 per cent of its budget from the NHS, with volunteers raising the rest.

Group chief executive Peter Holliday said in a letter to Mr Fabricant: "There are signs that NHS funding is becoming much tighter.

"I still have several contracts not as yet agreed for the 2005-06 financial year, a situation which has never arisen before."

The Parliamentary meeting where Mr Fabricant raised the funding issue was attended by other MPs, doctors, members of the hospice movement and patients.

"I am very lucky to represent the Lichfield constituency which has the excellent and successful St Giles' Hospice," Mr Fabricant said. "It not only cares for the sick and the dying, but also provides specialist help with, among other services, the first lymphodoema clinic in the country.

"It would be unthinkable if any funding for these services were reduced," he added.

The MP said hospice care was saving the NHS money and "must not be jeopardised".